IMC 619 Final Project

Jamie Huggins IMC 619 — Final Paper 1

Summary of Blogging Experience

The Value and Advantages of Blogging to Marketers Even though, “78% of CMO’s believe custom content marketing, like blogging, is the wave of the future, many companies still grossly underestimate the value of blogging” (Watson, 2014). Many organizations often begin blogging campaigns, only to quit shortly thereafter, because they do not see quick and definitive results. However, what many companies do not understand is that successful blogging takes time, consistency, and patience. These three qualities are the foundation to a blog’s success, and they unlock a variety of advantages that a successful corporate blog can offer.

• Low Cost Marketing Channel: “Blogs are cheap — even free. Blogs are easily built into an existing website and can be maintained at dedicated hosting sites all over the web for low or no cost” (7 Key Benefits, 2015).

• Excellent Avenue to Build a Network: “Every business needs a network; an internal network between divisions and an external network with other companies and customers” (7 Key Benefits, 2015). A regular written blog can allow companies to immediately reach thousands of targeted customers at any time and any place.

• Enhanced Company Visibility: “Closely related to networking, blog marketing benefits a company by keeping it visible” (7 Key Benefits, 2015). On-site and off-site blog links additionally increase traffic and SEO results.

• Increased Product Exposure: “Blog marketing is extremely useful for gaining mainstream visibility for products. The product line may be the focal subject of a company blog — a place where consumers or prospective customers can be educated on product features and use, or a place to debut new line additions” (7 Key Benefits, 2015).

• Enhanced Company Persona: “Blog marketing is one way to come down to a more personal level with customers” (7 Key Benefits, 2015). Both the voice and style of the blog allows a company’s customers get a feel for the brand, and if they want to be involved with it.

• Improved Customer Interaction: “Comment features on blogs are ideal ways to get to know your customer base. An engaging business blog is a place to hear kudos and complaints, as well as, conduct informal focus groups to determine how else customers’ needs might be fulfilled” (7 Key Benefits, 2015).

• SEO Optimized Content: The addition of a blog to a company website creates additional featured content. “It is essential to employ tools like Wordtracker.com and Hittail.com to identify targeted keywords that blog posts can be written on. The key is to include the keyword in the blog title as well as in the post and technorati tags” (7 Key Benefits, 2015).

Personal Blogging Strategy

My blog, “Emerging Media Musings,” was a bit of a leap of faith for me. I felt pretty unsure of myself going into this blogging adventure. I had no idea what I would write about, or if anyone would even read my posts. Honestly, I can easily say that I felt


very intimidated of this whole “blogging experience” at first. Thankfully, that feeling of uneasiness did not last long. The longer I worked on my blog, the easier blogging became. My strategy for my blog was simple: I would write authentic posts that covered a variety of emerging media topics which interested me. From the beginning, I also chose to incorporate both “categories” and “tagging” on each of my blog posts to increase traffic, SEO, and ease maneuverability around my site. As seen from the attached

image, the most popular tag was “marketing.” It received 53 views. “Wearable technology,” “advertising,” “technology,” “Apple,” and “Apple watch” were the second most popular combination of tags and categories. They received 44 views. Finally, “mobile marketing” and “mobile” were the third most popular combination of tags and categories. They received 11 views. Something interesting I noticed was that the tags “Apple” and “Apple watch” were only found in my final blog post for the class, but interestingly

enough, they ended up being some of the most popular tags viewed. I believe this showed evidence to my blog’s growth in traffic and readership over the past 9 weeks.

Challenges of Blogging and Solutions

• No Comments from Visitors/Readers: “It can be very frustrating to dedicate time creating a blog post, only to sit and wait for comments that never come. The interactive aspect of blogging is what draws many people to get started with their own blog, but in reality many new blogs have trouble attracting comments” (Snell, 2011).

• Personal Solution: As stated previously, this was one of the main fears I had with my blog. In order to overcome this challenge, I regularly left comments on my classmate’s blogs. Many of my classmates noticed this gesture, and I often found them returning the favor on my blog posts. In addition, I also responded to comments left on my blog by others. I believe this act of engagement showed the commenters that I appreciated their comments and helped build a community around my blog. I also engaged with my followers’ comments on areas of social media including: Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

• Not Enough Traffic: “Possibly the most frustrating challenge for many bloggers is trying to attract more visitors. In fact, most bloggers don’t give very much thought to how they will attract visitors until after the blog has been launched and they find that


not many people are visiting” (Snell, 2011). This challenge is oftentimes very discouraging to first-time bloggers and will cause them to give up altogether.

• Personal Solution: My buzz-building efforts are discussed in detail in the final section of this paper.

• No Clear Purpose: “Every blog should have a clear purpose. If a company is blogging for business purposes, they should have an idea of what you want to get out of blogging. Many people start blogs because other people are doing it and they feel that it is important, but they don’t always know specifically why” (Snell, 2011). Without a clear purpose, it is hard to keep visitor’s interest and their repeat traffic of coming back to the blog.

• Personal Solution: My blog’s purpose was to post about emerging media concepts for this class: IMC 619. Each of my posts centered around areas of this common theme in hopes that it would attract new visitors and create traffic on my blog. The layout design of my blog was simple, and I believed this look would allow my visitors to view my thoughts in an “expert” or “professional” manner they could take seriously.

• Very Few Repeat Visitors: “While getting traffic is certainly a concern for many bloggers, repeat traffic really is what is most important to a blog’s long-term success. In order for a blog to achieve and maintain a high level of success, it must be able to build a community. The community of users are people who come to the blog on a consistent basis, hopefully they leave comments at least occasionally, and they’re also more like to share a link or vote for the content on social media sites” (Snell, 2011).

• Personal Solution: I found that over time, I did begin to build a somewhat consistent following on my blog. My page views and visitor counts increased each month, which was something I was extremely happy with. One way I succeeded in doing this was by posting content regularly — at least once a week. Consistent posting allowed me to build a stronger community around my site and led to more repeat visitors. In addition, I also promoted my posts regularly on social media. Again, this is discussed in more detail in the final section of this paper.

Goals and Learning Takeaway

This blogging experience did allow me to accomplish my goals, for the most part. I had a goal of at least 100 views per month, and I received 221 views in January, 230 views in February, and 125 views to date in March for a total of 576 comments. I had views from the United States, Japan and even Brazil. In addition, I had 222 visitors view my blog over the last 9 weeks. The only area I wish I could have improved on was comments on my actual posts. I received 33 comments over the course of this 9 weeks. While I did receive plenty of comments on social media — getting that audience to transition to commenting on the blog was a difficult task. I contribute this to the fact that many of my friends may not have had Wordpress accounts and did not want to take the time to make one. It was easier just to comment on the social media post itself. My learning takeaway is that blogging can be very enjoyable if you are patient and consistent with it. I am not sure if I will keep this class blog going, but I may attempt blogging sometime again in the future. It was a great way for me to express myself and begin to build an online community around a topic that interested me personally.


Emerging Media Musings Blog Posts

Date: January 14, 2015 Post: Uninterrupted, Real-Time Marketing — Happening Through Emerging Media Near You

Date: January 23, 2015 Post: Watch Out Tech Giants — Here Comes Microsoft’s Hololens Standout Comments: gregstroud: Fascinating stuff. I had the pleasure of seeing Shelly Palmer speak at CES this year and he talked about augmented reality as a big game changer. He was talking about how close we are to interacting with our computers with voice commands and simple movements of our bodies–rather than with keyboards. He predicts that the next generation won’t even understand or know what a computer “mouse” is, or why we even needed it. The world is changing fast!

Date: January 29, 2015 Post: WARNING: You are Being Tracked Standout Comments: tkinwv: LBS is one idea I get in theory and from a marketing perspective, I see the benefits of using location based advertising. However, personally I get weirded out by the thought unscrupulous use of my data. I would prefer that the ads I see are relevant, but I am fine with clicking away from those I don’t want to see in order to maintain my (perceived) privacy.

Date: February 4, 2015 Post: Honda Takes Advertising to the Next Level Standout Comments: bmariesmith: I had never seen this before, but I loved it! Very cool. I’m not even sure I’ve ever really seen a successful ‘interactive advertising’ piece now that I’ve seen this one. I think Honda was definitely able to capture both sides of the story with this piece and it even though it was a little long, the fact that you could swap between story lines by pressing the ‘R’ key keeps the viewer engaged and curious. Very well done. Thanks for sharing!

Date: February 11, 2015 Post: How “Secure” is Social Media?

Date: February 18, 2015 Post: Money Goes Mobile Standout Comments: gregstroud: I have used the tablet at Chili’s. Even though I’m a marketer, the last five reasons they work for Chili’s bother me. I read a good article this weekend on the psychological impact on tipping of these devices. Tips for taxi drivers for instance have gone up. While part of that is great, especially if you’ve read “Hand to Mouth Bootstrapping in America” the other manipulation part isn’t. Consider that a higher tip also means more revenue for the credit card companies, so it’s to their advantage to get you to spend more.


gadelle: I have been at both a Chili’s and an Uno where these have been used. They were both effective, and it was great that you could divide the order up right there on the screen if you were dining with friends. I believe it was the one that Uno that also contained games for kids to play while they were waiting for their food – very effective, unless you have two kids that want to play.

Date: February 25, 2015 Post: And the Academy Award Goes to . . . Google for Best Execution of Real-Time Advertising Standout Comments: Ashley Peterson: I absolutely love this approach by Google! Though it’s surprising to see written down, the fact that public interest lasts 15 minutes in awards scenarios actually makes sense because, within a couple of minutes, viewers are thinking more about the next category, performer, or even commercials that they see. I’d love to see how this turned out for them and see how they may incorporate it into future live events. It definitely takes relevancy to the extreme without being overbearing or even “creepy”. I am a huge fan of The Grammys and it is probably the one awards show where I am most social on Twitter so my favorite comes from last year’s when Arby’s took the stage with their “Hey @Pharrell, can we have our hat back?” tweet. Classic!

Date: March 5, 2015 Post: Multiscreeners 4.0 Standout Comments: Dawn E: I find myself stacking more so than meshing; I have the TV on and doing something completely different on my phone. I noticed that my sister is the opposite—she meshes to the max. She sees an attractive actor or a catchy song on a show and immediately looks up the bio or artist. Barely does she stack. I mentioned in my first blog post that I was watching a movie with my dad and on my phone at the same time when he asked me if I wanted to watch the movie later because I “wasn’t paying attention”. It’s called multi-tasking and multi-screens, Dad! I should send him your post!

Julie Link: I’m raising my hand — yes! Why watch TV without doing something else?! (Says the person who has only worked at TV networks her entire career and really needs people to engage with TV content in order to keep doing what I do!) Second-screen extends the viewing experience and that works for a lot of different genres of programming.

Date: March 11, 2015 Post: Now That Apple Watch is Here, What Does That Mean for Marketers? Standout Comments: gregstroud: Bryan Kennedy said that “The Internet is an advertising medium.” I think the same will hold true for the Apple watch. It’s not a watch. It’s an wearable billboard. Good for marketers, but will it be good for the consumer? Also I wonder–if these watches and smartphones are being used primarily to send me a marketing message, why don’t I get them for free?


Buzz Building Efforts

My buzz building efforts focused mainly around social media. I added share content buttons at the bottom of each of my blog posts so that my content could be easily shared across social media channels like: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and even Google+. Every week after I made my original post, I would click on those icons and immediately share my content across my personal Facebook page, LinkedIn account, and Pinterest account. I do not have a personal Twitter account, so that is why

I did not share my posts on Twitter. In addition, I shared my posts on my personal Instagram account. I would screenshot images of my blog, upload them to Instagram, and guide users to my blog web address in my biography section. From the beginning of this class, I shared content strictly on Facebook and

LinkedIn, but about halfway through, I began sharing content on Pinterest and Instagram as well. For Pinterest, I created a blog posts board, where I could easily pin my blog entries. Unfortunately, I did not have any “re-pins,” but I think with some continued effort, and perhaps the incorporation of hashtags, I may have had more success. I found social media sharing to be an extremely effective way of driving traffic to my blog.

The most successful social media channels for this exercise were Facebook and Instagram. It can be seen from the inserted image, that Facebook surpassed all other referrers by an extremely wide margin with 140 views. This was something I noticed specifically each week as well. Every time I would make a post, I always saw the most activity and traffic from Facebook. As stated previously, I also received many comments and shares on Facebook as well. However, my audience seemed to have a tough time transitioning their commenting and sharing on my original blog post. I also had success on Instagram, particularly with engagement rates. I believe this was, in part, because of my incorporation of hashtags on my posts. For example, every time I posted on Instagram, I incorporated specific, related hashtags that would make my content easy for viewers to find. Some examples of successful hashtags I used are: #blogging, #blogger, #IMC, #marketing #apple #mobilemarketing, #applewatch, etc. The results were many “likes” and comments from Instagrammers who


were not already following me. Unfortunately, I was not able to measure the click-through rate on Instagram due to the platform’s capabilities, but I did notice that my blog traffic increased after I started sharing my posts on Instagram. I also worked to build buzz for my blog through engagement — meaning that I commented on other people’s blogs and responded to comments on my own blog and across all social media channels. “A blog with an active community builds upon itself, as readers are more likely to leave comments on blogs with plenty of reader participation” (Artman, 2015). As stated previously, these acts of engagement were often returned with acts of engagement. For example, if I commented on another classmate’s blog, I noticed that I soon received a comment on my blog post. When I responded to comments and questions, I often got more comments and questions. Engagement breeds engagement. This created a little community around my blog that I am quite pleased with after this experimental past 9 weeks.

The only buzz building exercise I wish I would have been able to participate in was involving a professional in the marketing field or blogosphere on my blog — either through an interview or featured blog post. I believe getting featured on their blog, or them sharing my content would have driven a high rate of traffic to my blog, which would not have been possible for me to create in these early stages myself. Unfortunately, I still do not have a lot of connections in the marketing world, but perhaps I could have interviewed a previous professor here in the IMC program or someone like that. It definitely is a buzz building exercise I would be interested in seeing the results of.

However, I still found that my buzz building methods of engagement and consistent sharing across social media channels created positive results. As previously stated, my blog had 576 total views, 222 visitors, 9 “likes,” and 33 comments. My most popular pages and posts included: the home page, “Watch Out Tech Giants,”

“Uninterrupted, Real-Time Marketing,” “Now that Apple Watch is Here,” and “Money Goes Mobile. My home page received 228 views, “Watch Out Tech Giants” received 49 views, “Uninterrupted, Real-Time Marketing” received 46 views, “Now that Apple Watch” received 46 views, and “Money Goes Mobile” received 37 views. With a little more time and some expanded effort, I truly believe my blog could have been even more successful. This assignment gave me the courage to blog, and it taught me the skills I need to be able to start a personal or professional company blog one day in the future.


REFERENCES

7 Key Benefits to Blog Marketing for Your Business. (2015). Street Directory. Retrieved March 16, 2015, from http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/113659/ blogging/7_key_benefits_to_blog_marketing_for_your_business.html

Artman, J. (2015). How to Build Buzz for Your Blog. Chron. Retrieved March 16, 2015, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/build-buzz-blog-28712.html

Snell, S. (2011, March 24). 5 Common Blogging Problems, and How to Overcome Them. Vandalay Design. Retrieved March 16, 2015, from http:// www.vandelaydesign.com/common-blogging-problems/

Watson, B. (2014, September 4). Why Your Company Should Reconsider Blogging Value. Adobe Digital Marketing. Retrieved March 16, 2015, from http:// blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/digital-marketing/company-reconsider- blogging-value/